Manila lifts lockdown but many opt to stay home over Covid-19 fears

Passengers board a train, usually packed during rush hour, with plastic sheets spacing out seats to ensure social distancing, in Manila on June 1, 2020. - AFP

MANILA (The Straits Times/ANN): Millions of Filipinos living in Metro Manila opted to stay home on Monday (June 1), the first day since the Philippines lifted one of the world's strictest and longest coronavirus lockdowns, as concerns over getting infected by a deadly coronavirus overpowered their desire to go out after being cooped up for three months.

“We’d rather wait for how things on the ground will shape up in the next two to four weeks, ” Jeff Sacramento, country head of tech outsourcing firm Simplus Philippines, told The Straits Times.